Altcoin News: Telegram ICO Drawing Near

The token will not be available for sale in a few countries including the United States and Japan

The most talked about ICO is finally going on public sale. Yes, Telegram’s very own Gram token is going to be offered to the public very soon. The cloud-based messaging service has been the talk of the town ever since speculations of its ICO surfaced the internet. This is the third time Telegram is hosting a private sale. Previously the Russian based company raised $850 million from 81 investors in their first pre-ICO that included some Silicon Valley giants Sequoia Capital. Later on, in a second private sale, the company raised an additional $850 million from 94 investors. With this Telegram made a record surpassing Tezos, which raised $232 million.

$1.7 billion already raised

This is the first ever company that raised a sum this huge ($1.7 billion) even before their ICO launched. The company has finally set a date to launch its much-awaited ICO as reported by TechCrunch. There will be a limited sale of the Gram token on the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid on the 10th of July. This is just a limited offering before a full public sale planned for October.

Liquid has no direct deals with telegram but the firm has said to have struck a deal with Gram Asia, a Korean based organization which claims to be the largest holder of Gram tokens in Asia. The companies have arranged an undisclosed number of tokens to be listed for the sale.

Telegram not behind sale, private pre-sale investors are

The press release that made the announcement includes no involvement or mention of Telegram, not even a quotation from the company’s CEO. Despite no news from Telegram, Liquid CEO Kayamori assured everyone that the listing is going as planned and is part of the ‘Telegram Open Network’ project that is Telegram’s very own blockchain network.

Kayamori further stated that TON is on track and could debut as early as October. According to Gram’s sale page on the exchange, “TON brings speed and scalability to a multi-blockchain architecture that addresses the need for minimal transaction times and airtight security”. The announcement also states that the sale is open to all investors globally, but excludes nations including the United States and Japan due to jurisdictional issues.

It should also be noted that the Gram token purchased during this sale will not be tradable and cannot be transferred until the final release after the TON mainnet goes live. Those willing to participate in this sale can register on Liquid and can use US dollars or USDC stable coin to make the purchase.

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